Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? — Exodus 10:7
When things have been a certain way for a long time, we conclude that things are supposed to be that way — good or bad — and that any deviation is some sort of anomaly. Most living Americans have enjoyed, relatively speaking, liberty, peace, and prosperity all our lives. We have trouble imagining the poverty in which most of the world lives, the desperation faced quite often by a majority of humanity throughout history.
Though even "poor" Americans still enjoy more comfort and ease than any except the wealthiest individuals of the past, we are approaching a horizon beyond which we cannot see. Some trust in technology and look for the Singularity. Some trust in demographics and think that America will be shattered. Some trust in finance and believe that the creation of a one-world currency will bring a new day. Some trust in governments and look for a great global hegemony.
I make no claim to know what will happen in the future except that we will all come to the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" and be united in the New Man. Antichrists and beasts and false prophets will rise and will fall. The people of God will be oppressed and suffer, and Egypt will be ruined. Or, they will be free and prosper and be at peace, and Egypt along with them.
What is Egypt? It is the archetype of the world system. Sometimes it works with the Body of Christ more or less consistently and experiences enlightenment and positive development. The West has known this in fits and spurts for the last 500 years or so. It has been especially true in America for the last couple of hundred years. I do not know if we are facing simply a minor setback in this relationship or an extended period of opposition to God's people. I am pretty sure, though, that no one can envision how ugly things can get unless you have seen some place like Sarajevo or Somalia or Rwanda. When Christ is removed from or actively opposed by the system on a large scale, darkness and destruction are the inevitable results.
When a nation turns to worshiping idols, making servants into masters, and attributing god-like powers to men, it will be ruined. Egypt, Rome, the French Revolution, the Third Reich, the Soviet Union, to mention a few, have seen the consequences. Will 21st Century America join the list? Or has it already? We have our idols to be sure. Science and technology have turned from serving us to dictating how we are live. Too many of us bow down before men and governments. There are those among us who are enriched and honored for mocking God, and sin is celebrated. America will not be saved by Washington or Hollywood, unions or Wall Street. Perhaps it will not be saved at all.
For by now I could have put out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you My power, so that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth (Exodus 9:15-16).
But if there is to be a revival and renewal in this nation, or any nation, it will happen because the people of God recognize who they are. We have been delivered from bondage. Christ has set us free, and we are no more slaves. The puny restraints of the world cannot hold us any more than the fetters of the Philistines could hold the unshorn Samson. We will arise and serve the Lord, and Egypt can make its choice.
2 comments:
"I do not know if we are facing simply a minor setback in this relationship or an extended period of opposition"
I hear you. I often think, why do should I deserve (in this time I've been given) any better or worse a period in history than anyone else was given in their period of history.
But there is something different about America. And I search myself to make sure I don't feel that way just because it's my country. I was feeling a bit down, it was a week or so ago, about our situation, economic, culture, the unemployment rate, theirs, our prospects, the whole deal. I was driving home on the highway at the time. There was something about the way this one person was driving ahead if me. He was weaving in and out around the other cars. Then I saw he wasn't the only one doing it. And it seemed like, some of them, they weren't taking it lying down. They wouldn't stand for it. These were the Americans. You can't always see them.
I think there is something to that, and I think America, despite all the garbage and decadence that passes for entertainment, is still at its core a Christian nation. It could still get pretty ugly, but I consider how people responded to the destruction of Joplin. We had a surprisingly small number of looters and scammers, and a large number of people volunteering to help.
And there are still a lot of voices out there saying, Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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